Chicken Salad with Chili Lime Vinaigrette Recipe

Summertime means it’s usually too hot to cook, and most of us are keeping an eye out for new and different full-meal salads to serve for dinner. The following Asian Chicken Salad with Chili Lime Vinaigrette is colorful, delicious, fairly low calorie (for those who are lounging around the pool in a bikini – around 400 calories for a full meal), and very filling. It is actually a clone for a popular salad served in The Bistro, a restaurant in the Courtyard Atlanta Airport in Atlanta, GA, and can be made at home in a minimum of hands-on time due to the availability of coleslaw mix (no need to shred cabbage and carrots) and packages of romaine lettuce that are already cleaned and torn. It’s possible to find the other veggies already prepared in the produce departments of many larger grocery stores, too, but if not, the carrots, green onions, and cucumbers take very little time to chop. The dressing, of course, is quick, and takes only about 5 minutes to put together.
The salad consists of crisp romaine lettuce mixed with coleslaw mix, crunchy diced carrots, green onions, cucumbers, and peanuts. It’s topped with grilled chicken (grill extra when preparing grilled chicken for dinner – marinated or not - to use in the salad or thaw out some frozen grilled chicken from the Grilled Chicken Module) and tossed with a spicy Chili Lime Vinaigrette. Everything can be done ahead of time, if that’s more convenient, and tossed together at the last minute. For those who crave extra carbs, a handful of Chinese noodles can be tossed in, too. Crusty French bread (or any favorite bread or whole grain roll) is good, but not absolutely necessary, to round out the meal. Incidentally, Asian Chicken Salad with Chili Lime Vinaigrette also makes a great side salad for a crowd; chop the chicken into smaller pieces and as a side dish, this recipe serves 16 to 20.